Discovering indie sewing

Sewing is a skill I often take for granted. Years ago I had experimented with sewing my own clothes, but grew frustrated with the lack of desirable patterns, patience, and money! Fabric is expensive, and takes patience and precision to come up with a quality finished product. While cruising Etsy for general sewing patterns recently, I discovered how many designers are selling PDF patterns for garments that are actually fun to wear. This led to me finding independent sellers of fabric targeting these fashions, and I made a goal to begin sewing more of my own clothing. My first choice of buying garment fabric online is Sewing Studio. This shop is local to me and doesn't have a store-front, but the quality is outstanding.

One of my favorite designers is Sew Liberated. The patterns are easy, functional, versatile and fun to wear. I first purchased the Schoolhouse Tunic because I like the bohemian look. The first tunic was made with a batik fabric. I wore this tunic shirt in Jerome Arizona, a cute little western town high up in the mountains of Arizona pictured with my older kids below.

The second one was made into a dress meant to wear with tights. I used a lavender cotten gauze fabric for this one, and it turned out very well. I love how it matches my foxgloves in full bloom.

Another designer I'm obsessed with is If Kim Wore Clothes with her whimsical styles of comfort and feminity. I chose the Ashley Dress which was very simple, and I can wear this over a long sleeve top with tights in cooler temperatures. This dress was sewn using a light blue linen fabric.

While patterns can look gorgeous on the screen, the choice of fabric is of course essential to make it worth the effort and patience to sew your own clothing. Although the cost and patterns of DIY clothing can be more expensive then buying clothing at your local big box clothing retailer, the feeling of wearing something made by your own hands is one of the best. I love that I can custom make my own clothing in the color, fabric and style I choose.

Back to beading

 Before I was a knitter/crocheter, I was a beader. I spent hundreds of dollars on beads each month making my own jewelry, giving them as gifts, adorning other trinkets. My favorites are semi-precious stones because of the heavy feel of wearing beautiful tiny rocks as jewelry. Not commuting to an office over the past year had led to my old beaded necklaces sitting in a drawer for months. Pulling them out and appreciating the beautiful stones gave me inspiration to re-vamp them into new works.

The first one I re-created was a rhodonete, hematite, rose quartz necklace. The shiny metalic appearance of hematite goes well with the translucent rose quartz and matte rhodenite. I added larger round rhodentite to this new necklace to give it more length and variety in appearance. 

The second necklace I recently re-created was an iolite and blue lace agate strand. Very small labradorite and moonstine pieces were added to lengthen and refresh this one.

I have a couple more that will get makeovers soon, updates to follow!